January 12, 2017 "Information
Clearing House"
- The Syrian Army is alleging that Israeli
jets struck positions dozens of times within
Syria early Tuesday morning in the al-Qutayfa
area east of Damascus.

According to a
statement by Syria’s General Command, the
Syrian government’s air defenses not only
intercepted all of the missiles Israel
fired, but it even managed to counter strike
one of the Israeli jets, the Jerusalem
Post reports.

While the strike is unconfirmed on the
Israeli side, Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu referred to the recent assault
during a lunch with NATO ambassadors in
Jerusalem, according to the Post.

“We have a long-standing
policy to prevent the transfer of
game-changing weapons to Hezbollah from
Syrian territory. This policy has not
changed. We back it up as necessary with
action,” he said.

Israel has hit Syrian territory over 100
times since the conflict began in 2011. It
has also openly talked recently about
bombing Lebanon. Each of these conflict
theaters is aimed at containing Iran’s
expanding influence.

All
of this begs the question: Why haven’t Iran,
Syria, and/or Hezbollah in Lebanon responded
directly? Striking the territory of a
sovereign nation is not only an act of war,
it is completely illegal without
authorization from the U.N. unless it has
been done in self-defense.

Is it because
Israel reportedly has
well over 200 nukes all “pointed at Iran,”
and there is little Iran and its allies can
do to take on such a threat?

According to
theGuardian,
Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly
instructed both Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad and Hezbollah not to retaliate
against Israeli strikes in Syria. The Guardian also
notes that Israeli media has claimed Putin
even proposed a deal that would prevent
foreign powers from using
Syria as a base for attacking a neighboring
state, a
blatant reference to Iran.

While much of Syria’s air defenses are
Russian-supplied, the Jerusalem Post notes
that the far more advanced Russian S-300 and
S-400 have not been used against Israeli
jets, but Syrian air defenses have. This
includes an incident in March where three
anti-aircraft missiles with a 200-kilogram
warhead targeted several Israeli jets.

Clearly, Russia
has no interest in getting involved in a
spat between Israel and Iran. In fact, it
can most likely use the impending conflict
to further pursue its goals in the Middle
East and successfully emerge as the major
power broker, wedging the United States out
of the area completely. Even now, Russia is
continuing its support for the Syrian
government to retake the remaining parts of
Syria currently up for grabs, particularly
in the Idlib province. Much of the media’s
attention is focused elsewhere, like
the protests in Iran.

Make no mistake, the looming conflict
between Iran and Israel via its proxy states
could easily break out unless something
drastic is done to diffuse it.

On
Tuesday, the head of the Mossad, Yossi
Cohen, warned of the proliferation of
accurate Iranian missiles in the Middle
East.

“The Iranians are coasting
into the Middle East undisturbed and with
very large forces, in a way that virtually
creates an air and land corridor that pours
fighters into the region in order to
actualize the Iranian vision,”Cohen
warned at a Finance Ministry event in
Jerusalem on Tuesday, adding that “we
hear the concerns from Sunni leaders about
Iran are growing, just as they are in
Israel. We are hearing it from everywhere.”

Speaking to Politico in
December, Ambassador to the United States
Ron Dermer also warned:

“If Iran is not rolled back
in Syria, then the chances of military
confrontation are growing. I don’t want to
tell you by the year or by the month. I’d
say even by the week,” he
said.

“Because the more they push, we have to
enforce our redlines, and you always have
the prospects of an escalation, even when
parties don’t want an escalation. So in
taking action to defend ourselves, you don’t
know what could happen. But I think it’s
higher than people think.”

In the
meantime, it
is unclear how
much Russia might tolerate a blatant attack
on Iran if it extends past the disputed
border area with Israel. Regardless, Iran
and Russia will remain key allies in the
years to come until Washington’s influence
and control over the Middle East has all but
completely eroded.

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